New Team Colors Website!
31 March 2010
Friends,
We are pleased to announce that Team Colors has a new website and that our forthcoming AK Press collection-Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States-will have one soon too.
All of our “news and events” will migrate over to the new site, as will other materials. So please link directly to www.warmachines.info from now on!
Give us a few days to finish it up, make any additional corrections, and do let us know what you think!
Solid.
Team Colors
New Team Colors Article: “Abandoning the chorus: checking ourselves a decade since Seattle”
25 March 2010
The Team Colors Collective is pleased to announce that our most recent article – titled “Abandoning the chorus: checking ourselves a decade since Seattle” – is appearing in the first issue of a new journal from the Groundswell Collective. The first issue of the Groundswell Journal is called “Crisis Folklore” and includes contributions from Team Colors friends Gavin Grindon and City Life / Vida Urbana in addition to our own.
A note from the Groundswell Collective and a link to obtain the journal follows.
* * *
Groundswell’s journal is hot off the presses, and available in our online
store.
This first edition focuses on crisis folklore, and includes contributions by
Groundswell, Gavin Grindon (the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination), Susan Sakash (RadKidCare), John Hulsey and collaborators (City Life/Vida Urbana), Karl Fitzgerald (Real Estate 4 Ransom), Team Colors Collective, and Chris Kennedy (basekamp/The Institute for Applied Aesthetics).
Copies are available in select book stores (see below) and are coming soon to the rest of the country and the UK! If you’re interested in helping to distribute copies, please contact us.
You can also buy copies from the bookstores below.
– Red Emma’s (Baltimore, MD)
– Bluestockings (NYC, NY)
– Lucy Parsons Center (Boston, MA)
Friends,
We are writing to you today to invite you to attend two upcoming Team Colors events – one at Bluestockings in New York City on March 18th and another at the Red & Black Café in Portland, Oregon on the 25th – the details of which follow.
Additionally, the collective is pleased to announce the final list of contributors to our forthcoming AK Press collection Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, & Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States that will be released at the US Social Forum in June 2010.
Look forward to seeing many of you in New York, Portland or on our book tour this summer!
Team Colors Collective
http://www.warmachines.info
teamcolors@warmachines.info
* * *
New York – Thursday, March 18th at 7PM
Engaging Contemporary Movement
Bluestockings Bookstore
http://bluestockings.com/directions/
172 Allen Street, NYC
On Thursday, MARCH 18th at 7PM please join Team Colors as they reflect on organizing in the context of current capitalist and movement crises, and discuss the uses of militant research and inquiry into radical movements in the U.S. They will explore the intention, method and content of their new pamphlet “Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible” and their forthcoming AK Press collection “Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States.”
Team Colors is a national militant research collective. Their approach has developed from involvement in community organizing projects, resistance activities and radical research efforts for more than a decade. Their forthcoming pamphlet “Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible” will be available for sale at the event.
Coming to New York for the Left Forum or based in the New York area? Have something to contribute to this discussion or share about your radical community organizing project? Contact Team Colors to participate in a short go around following the presentation and before open discussion — teamcolors@warmachines.info.
* * *
Portland, OR – Thursday, March 25th at 7PM
A Exploration of Contemporary Autonomist Politics
Red & Black Café
http://www.redandblackcafe.com
400 SE 12th avenue (at Oak)
An evening with Autonomedia, Minor Compositions and the Team Colors Collective.
Join us for an evening with two autonomist authors and organizers from Portland and London in exploring contemporary politics, the continued imposition of work, current struggles in the University and elsewhere, militant and co-research, and in celebrating the release of their recent books. In the U.S. and across the planet struggles against enclosures, the dismantling of the University, for public and community space, against “the endless imposition of work”, and against a form of life that is increasingly precarious – are currently taking place. By “reading” these and neighboring struggles we seek to create a world in which many worlds fit. A discussion on these issues and other topics will follow short talks.
“This is Forever” is a discussion series based in Bluestockings Books (NYC) and currently expanding to other cities around the United States – http://www.thisisforever.org
Event presenters:
Stevphen Shukaitis | Autonomedia / Minor Compositions. Shukaitis is the author of the recently book Imaginal Machines: Autonomy and Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life (Minor Compositions, 2009), an editor at Autonomedia and lecturer at the University of Essex. He is the editor (with Erika Biddle and David Graeber) of Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations // Collective Theorization (AK Press, 2007). His research focuses on the emergence of collective imagination in social movements and the changing compositions of cultural and artistic labor. http://www.autonomedia.org & http://www.minorcompositions.info.
Kevin Van Meter | Team Colors Collective. As member of the militant research collective, Van Meter has been involved in editing the collectives forthcoming collection Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States (AK Press, 2010), co-authoring Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible (Pamphlet, 2010), and has participated in radical community organizing initiatives for more then a decade. http://www.warmachines.info.
Copies of Imaginal Machines and Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible will be available at the event.
* * *
Uses of a Whirlwind:
Movement, Movements, & Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States
Edited by the Team Colors Collective & Published by AK Press
June 2010 | 352 Pages | $19.95 | 978-1-84935-016-7
will you join us in the middle of a whirlwind?
This was asked of organizers, activists, artists, & theorists to begin to understand the current composition & strength of radical movements in the United States. Using the metaphor of a whirlwind to describe the myriad of struggles taking place currently & those blowing across the planet this past decade, Team Colors conducted an inquiry and examination of movements in the United States – resulting in a set of case studies, movement strategies, theoretical analyses, & interviews. These winds seek a return to radical community organizing – toward making a revolution possible.
Contributors include Malav Kanuga | Bluestockings Books & Activism Center,
Direct Action to Stop the War, Roadblock Earth Frist!, Starbucks Workers Union – IWW, Marina Karides | United States Social Forum, Student / Farmworker Alliance, City Life/ Vida Urbana | Picture the Homeless | Take Back the Land | United Workers, Harmony Goldberg | Domestic Workers United & Right to the City Alliance, Basav Sen, John Peck| Family Farm Defenders, Brian Tokar, Benjamin Shepard, Julie Perini, Dorothy Kidd, Daniel Tucker | AREA Chicago, Maribel Casas-Cortes & Sebastian Cobarrubias, Brian Marks, Michael Hardt & El Kilombo Intergalactico, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Peter Linebaugh, & Chris Carlsson. Interviews with Robin D.G. Kelley, Ashanti Omowali Alston, & Grace Lee Boggs. Artwork: Kristine Virsis | Justseeds Artists Cooperative. Forward: Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press. Preface: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz & Andrej Grubacic.
Engaging Contemporary Movement: Inquiry and Radical Organizing in the United States
Thursday, March 18th 2010, 7pm
Bluestockings Book, Cafe and Activist Center – 172 Allen St. LES, NYC
Join Team Colors as they reflect on organizing in context of current capitalist and movement crises, and discuss the uses of militant research and inquiry into radical movements in the U.S. They will explore the intention, method and content of their new pamphlet “Radical Community Organizing to Make a Revolution Possible” and their forthcoming AK Press collection “Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States.”
* * *
Team Colors & friends will be at the Red & Black Cafe in Portland, OR Thursday, 25 March 2010, 7pm. Details to follow!
Whirlwinds Postcards Available!
29 January 2010
Team Colors is pleased to announce that our pre-release postcards for Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States (AK Press, June 2010) are available for distribution and, shortly, from your local radical bookstore.
Original artwork by Kristine Virsis of Justseeds and printed by Eberhardt Press in Portland, OR; these postcards will be distributed to infoshops and radical bookstores across the U.S.
Our promotional postcards, posters and other materials will be available in April and feature the new and amazing Whirlwinds artwork by Kristine Virsis.
If you are interested and able to distribute postcards in your community – to infoshops, bookstores, community centers, or via tables at events – email us at info (at) whirlwinds (dot) info.
Andrej Grubacic and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz join Whirlwinds
8 January 2010
Andrej Grubacic and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz join the Team Colors Collection Uses of a Whirlwind
Friends,
Team Colors is pleased to announce that noted activist-scholars Andrej Grubacic and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz will be joining the collection Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. The volume will be released by AK Press in June 2010 in conjunction with the US Social Forum in Detroit.
Grubacic and Dunbar-Ortiz are writing the book’s extensive Preface, which will situate the collection within current radical literature and the last thirty years of political organizing.
About the Preface Authors:
Andrej Grubacic is an anarchist dissident and historian who has written prolifically on anarchism and the history of the Balkans. Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, Grubacic was based in Belgrade, before leaving his position as assistant lecturer of History at the University of Belgrade (due to tensions relating to his political activism) and relocating to the Fernand Braudel Center at SUNY Binghamton in New York, United States where he taught in the Sociology department. His most recent book Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History with Staughton Lynd has met with great acclaim (PM Press, 2008).
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma where her paternal grandfather had been an organizer for the IWW. She is a writer, historian, teacher, and long-time leftist organizer, beginning in the 1960s. Recently retired as a professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at California State University, East Bay, she lives in San Francisco. She is the author of numerous books and articles on indigenous peoples, including Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-Determination and Roots of Resistance: History of Land Tenure in New Mexico, as well as a historical memoir trilogy: Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie; Outlaw Woman; and Blood on the Border. www.reddirtsite.com
We look forward to having Grubacic’s and Dunbar-Ortiz’s words in the pages of Uses of a Whirlwind.
Wholeheartedly,
Craig Hughes, Stevie Peace, Kevin Van Meter, and Benjamin Holtzman
Team Colors Collective – www.warmachines.info
Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76355745428
Myspace: www.myspace.com/teamcolors
Uses of a Whirlwind – www.whirlwinds.info
AK Press Publishing & Distribution – www.akpress.org
# # #
Friends,
Team Colors is pleased to announce that AK Press will be publishing the collective’s first book, Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. The volume will be released June 2010 to coincide with the US Social Forum in Detroit.
In seeking to construct a collection that is useful to and utilized in radical community organizing efforts, Team Colors has a short survey of questions to help shape Whirlwinds. Please fill out the questionnaire below, return it to info@whirlwinds.info, and share the survey with others involved in radical community organizing and community-building work.
Name:
Organizational Affiliation (if any):
Email Address:
City, State / Region:
- What organizations or projects do you participate in? How would you characterize the work that you do?
- What sources of information do you use to find out about current radical movements? What books, magazines, blogs, and other media do you access to understand power relationships in society and how to overcome them?
- What is missing from current accounts of radical organizing and politics that you would like to see in a collection such as Whirlwinds?
- What struggles and movements do you see as important to focus on in Whirlwinds?
- What role should a collection such as Whirlwinds play in your organizing efforts? What would be useful for your own organizing, and what is needed to strengthen radical community organizing efforts in the United States?
Uses of a Whirlwind: www.whirlwinds.info
Friends,
Team Colors is pleased to announce that AK Press will be publishing the collective’s first book, Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. The volume will be released June 2010 to coincide with the US Social Forum in Detroit.
“Will you join us in the middle of a whirlwind?” This is the question Team Colors has asked organizers, activists, artists, and theorists as we have sought to understand the current composition and strength of radical movements in the United States. In utilizing the metaphor of a whirlwind to describe the myriad of struggles that are taking place currently and those that have been blowing across the planet over the past decade, Team Colors has conducted an inquiry and examination of movements in the United States, which has resulted in the collection Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States (Whirlwinds). Whirlwinds provides case studies, movement strategies, theoretical analysis and interviews on radical community organizing—toward making social change possible!
Contributors to Whirlwinds include Malav Kanuga | Bluestockings Books & Activism Center, Direct Action to Stop the War, Roadblock Earth First!, Industrial Workers of the World – Starbucks Workers Union, Marina Karides | United States Social Forum Documentation Committee, Student/Farmworker Alliance, Harmony Goldberg | Domestic Workers United & Right to the City Alliance, Basav Sen, John Peck | Family Farm Defenders, Brian Tokar, Benjamin Shepard, Julie Perini, Jen Angel, Daniel Tucker | AREA Chicago, Maribel Casas-Cortes & Sebastian Cobarrubias | Producciones Translocales, Michael Hardt & El Kilombo Intergaláctico, George Caffentzis, Silvia Federici, Peter Linebaugh, Chris Carlsson & others; interviews with Robin D.G. Kelley, Ashanti Omowali Alston & Grace Lee Boggs; artwork by Kristine Virsis | Justseeds Artists Cooperative.
Team Colors, AK Press and many of the Whirlwinds contributors will be present at the US Social Forum in Detroit. Team Colors will also be visiting a number of cities across the US in the summer of 2010 to speak about the collection and current radical community organizing. Please contact teamcolors@warmachines.info to bring the collective to your area.
Survey: Making the Collection Useful
In seeking to construct a collection that is useful to and utilized in radical community organizing efforts, Team Colors has a short survey of questions to help shape Whirlwinds. Please fill out the questionnaire below, return it to info@whirlwinds.info, and share the survey with others involved in radical community organizing and community-building work.
Name:
Organizational Affiliation (if any):
Email Address:
City, State / Region:
1. What organizations or projects do you participate in? How would you characterize the work that you do?
2. What sources of information do you use to find out about current radical movements? What books, magazines, blogs, and other media do you access to understand power relationships in society and how to overcome them?
3. What is missing from current accounts of radical organizing and politics that you would like to see in a collection such as Whirlwinds?
4. What struggles and movements do you see as important to focus on in Whirlwinds?
5. What role should a collection such as Whirlwinds play in your organizing efforts? What would be useful for your own organizing, and what is needed to strengthen radical community organizing efforts in the United States?
Fundraising Appeal
Uses of a Whirlwind will provide detailed analysis, thoughtful criticism, and substantive writing on current organizations and campaigns in the US.
Team Colors and AK Press are committed to extensively outreaching the collection. The reason for this is simple: we do not want Whirlwinds to reach only those who identify as anarchists, radicals or activists. Our audience includes those involved in anti-capitalist and anarchist projects, but Whirlwinds is also targeted toward anyone interested in building and sustaining the power necessary to transcend current forms of oppression and exploitation.
Team Colors is asking our friends, colleagues, and supporters to donate toward printing posters and postcards, mailing costs, and other efforts to promote the collection, as we work with AK Press’s own substantive and widespread outreach campaigns. As a small volunteer collective, Team Colors needs your support to help find Whirlwinds the audience it deserves!
Visit http://www.warmachines.info/contacts.html to contribute and sign up on the mailing list!
Wholeheartedly,
Craig Hughes, Stevie Peace, Kevin Van Meter, and Benjamin Holtzman
Team Colors Collective
http://www.warmachines.info
teamcolors@warmachines.info
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76355745428
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/teamcolors
Uses of a Whirlwind
http://www.whirlwinds.info
info@whirlwinds.info
AK Press Publishing & Distribution
http://www.akpress.org
# # #
American University, Washington, DC: Saturday – 10 October 2009
Craig Hughes of the Team Colors Collective will be part of a panel titled “Hell, Whirlwinds, Coups, and Runarounds” on October 10 as part of the “Advancing Social Justice in Times of Crisis” Conference. The panel will go from 11:00 am to 12:15 pm.
A Letter Among Friends:
Yesterday and five days before that. Yesterday marked two years since Jodi’s death. Five long days before that, the 21st of July, was two years since she passed into the unknown, leaving this world we all inhabit. I write this to you in missing Jodi Tilton since these past two years have become endless and immeasurable, as suffering this loss is “one very long moment”.
I know you all miss her as well and in your own and important ways, as Jodi brought out something different in each of us. And I want to recognize how we have all suffered in our own and important ways in and around this immeasurable loss, and in our own lives.
Oscar Wilde, in his prison letter De Profundis, writes on the nature of suffering as he sat in Reading Goal and I find the words hauntingly similar to grief and mourning and in missing Jodi Tilton. I thought I would share those words with you all.
“Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. We can only record its moods, and chronicle their return. With us time itself does not progress. It revolves. It seems to circle round one centre of pain. The paralyzing immobility of a life every circumstance of which is regulated after an unchangeable pattern, so that we eat and drink and lie down and pray, or kneel at least for prayer, according to the inflexible laws of an iron formula: this immobile quality, that makes each dreadful day in the very minutest detail like its brother, seems to communicate itself to those external forces the very essence of whose existence is ceaseless change. Of seed-time or harvest, of the reapers bending over the corn, or the grape gatherers threading through the vines, of the grass in the orchard made white with broken blossoms or strewn with fallen fruit: of these we know nothing and can know nothing. (…) For us there is only one season, the season of sorrow.”
I often question myself in this “season of sorrow” how or why I have continued in this life, as I feel that I have lost myself as well; maybe it too passed into the unknown on 21 July 2007. And the answer can be found in those moments and flows between all of us and with those memories of her we have collected together.
But I can not help but remark on the irony of this “season of sorrow”, as she would have been immensely frustrated with all of this, and all of us. As her ability to forgive, to live her life, to create and produce, and to show affections and build relationships – her life, “a life” – is something that we carry within ourselves. Their have been too many terrible lines in notebooks, too many tears and nightmares, too much “suffering” these past two years.
If I cannot hold her in my arms, or hear her bellowing voice, or share a meal with her, or “meet clandestinely on the hill behind the ball fields in Prospect Park” – then the only way to have Jodi become part of our “forever”, to carry her into this world and the new one we are creating, is to create “a life”, a new life. Simply, very simply: I’m going to try, and I hope you will join me and try in your own and important ways.
In missing Jodi Tilton these past two years, and missing you all as well,
Kevin Van Meter
27 July 2009
Team Colors Collective: News & Events 